The Reluctance of Sophie Foster
by cryptsandhelium
Summary: Sophie discovered she was an elf. She had to start living in the Lost Cities. She had to harness her abilities. She had to "go by the elven way"... But what if she didn't want to? AU where Sophie's human life is an important part of her character and won't just leave the stuff she grew up with behind.


I wrote this all the way back in January and I realized I had never posted it on here along with ao3. So this is a bit late and I am still having trouble working with this site's formating but I hope you all enjoy this regardless!

* * *

"You're not off the hook yet, Soybean. We still need to talk about what happened today."

Her father's words rang in Sophie's head. Remembering that whatever he wanted to talk about was never going to happen.

She was leaving her family behind.

Her hands shook as she gave one last look around her room. All of her old knickknacks, the books she read growing up, all of the awards she won during school events. None of those would matter anymore. At least not according to what Alden and Fitz had told her.

She was an elf.  
She had to leave it all behind.  
She had to forget all about this life just like how her human family would soon.

'But this is stuff I enjoyed' she thought. 'This is all I ever cared about. Why should I have to leave it all behind? Why should I have to leave my family behind? **It's not fair!'**

Something moving against her leg interrupted Sophie's thoughts. Her big fluffy cat Marty seemed to sense her distress. She didn't even notice that she had started to cry.

"C'mere buddy" Sophie sat on the edge of her bed and patted her thighs twice, an invitation to jump up and cuddle one last time. He complied, circling around a few times before squishing his fat and fuzzy body into her stomach. Sophie her unsteady hand through his unruly gray fur.

Sophie thought about the day she had found him. He was small, cold and covered in dirt. She remembered how he had been afraid to leave the bush she found him in. How he kept meowing as she gave him a quick bath in the kitchen sink before her mom found out. She remembered her dad coming home from work and screamed because even though her barely fit in the palm of her hands, he was definitely afraid of cats at the time. But one look into Sophie's puppy dog eyes convinced her parents enough to let her keep and take care of him.

Marty never got along with her family as well as he did with her. Him and her dad would mutually avoid each other. He never seemed to mix with Amy's hyperactive personality. And her mom, despite her multiple efforts to get on Marty's good side, could never connect with him as well as Sophie had.

She continued to stroke his fur as more memories came forward.

Once when she was ten he had somehow escaped out of the house in the middle of winter. She remembered frantically searching every room looking for him. Opened every door and cabinet. Looked under every piece of furniture that she knew his chunky body couldn't fit into but tried anyway. She even climbed the trees in her front and backyard. No sign of him anywhere. Sophie had been devastated for days after he had gone missing. A little longer than a week passed and Amy was trying to cheer her up by watching one of her favorite animated movies with her on a rare rainy day when she heard their father come home. The pink starfish in fishnets and very risque high heel boots started dancing on the screen when her dad exclaimed "guess who I found fighting three birds in Mr. Forkle's driveway!" In his arms was a very wet and disheveled Marty whose fur was speckled with black bird feathers. Amy had screamed as Sophie vaulted over the couch, nearly breaking her ankle and sprinted forward. Marty jumped out of her dad's arms and into her's. Sophie had collapsed to her knees as soon as her buried his fluffy head into her neck as he shook and purred louder than she ever heard him purr before. She sobbed for at least thirty five minutes straight as she gave him a bath and silently promised that she would never let him out of her sight again.

He wasn't just her cat he was her best friend. As pathetic as that might sound she was always there for him and he was always there for her.

Sophie moved Marty onto her bed. He meowed in protest for the loss of her warmth as she opened up her closet. She grabbed Marty's pink cat carrier from the back and pulled a warm gray hoodie off of its hanger. She folded the hoodie and stored it into the carrier to make him more comfortable. She opened up her nightstand drawer, took out a bag his favorite treats and began the process of luring Marty into his carrier

There was absolutely no way she was leaving him behind.

* * *

Fitz found Sophie on the floor sobbing.

He was trying to comfort her, but it wasn't doing much. She just drugged her family and it felt awful.

"Hey, it's okay. Everything is going to be alright soon." He reassured her. "You did the right thing"

'It definitely doesn't feel like the right thing, buddy!' She wanted to yell at him, but all she could do was attempt to hold back her tears. He gave her another hug an informed her that Washers, telepaths who specialize in erasing memories, were coming and they had to leave before they arrived.

"Is that all you are taking?" Fitz pointed at her bag, "This is your last chance you know." She pulled her purple backpack over her shoulders. It was pretty light considering that the only important items in there were her scrapbook and her iPod.

"No, actually" Sophie sniffed, wiping away a few more tears. "There one...actually make that two more things I have to grab. one of them is upstairs though"

As soon as Fitz grabbed Ella, her blue stuffed elephant, out of her room she was ready to go.

"Okay are you sure you have every- Um is that a cat?" He pointed at the cat carrier where Marty was still passed out from the sleeping gas.

Sophie's hand clenched on the fabric handle. "I'm taking him with me whether you are going to let me or not."

Fitz waved his hands in surrender. "No! No that is perfectly fine! It's asleep though, right? That will make light leaping with him much easier."

She nodded. Fitz gave her a comforting smile.

"Alright then. Lets hurry before the gas wears off."

Sophie looked back at her family one last time. 'No turning back now huh,' she thought sorrowfully.

She adjusted the cat carrier's strap and took Fitz's hand.

"I'm ready to go."

As Fitz led her out of the front door she thought that despite the fact she was leaving everything behind, at least she was lucky enough to have her best with her for the long and crazy journey ahead of her.


End file.
